F E A T U R E A R T I C L E Jordanian Patients’ and Caregivers’ Use of the Internet for Seeking Health Information LAILA M. AKHU-ZAHEYA, PhD, RN SUZANNE S. DICKERSON, DNS, RN Jordan, officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, is an Arab country in the Middle East that gained its independence in 1946. The population of Jordan is about 5 723 000 (2007). 1 The official language is Arabic, but English is used widely in commerce and government and among educated people. Arabic and English are obliga- torily taught at schools, both public and private. French is the only other language that is taught in some private schools. Jordan is ranked 89th in the world at 91.1% according to literacy rate. Its educational system is of in- ternational standards, and its secondary education pro- gram is accepted in world-class universities. 2 Healthcare in the coming century requires the man- agement of public and private health concerns. There has been a rapid growth of information technology (eg, Internet, cellular phones, and PDA) in nearly all areas of society, affecting the general population and profes- sionals. The healthcare context is no exception in this regard; information technology is changing the shape of patient care when patients seek health information online. In recent years, Jordan has experienced wide- spread use of technology, including the Internet. Many consumers (eg, patients, students, and laypersons) have access to the Internet, which can be attributed to the widespread growth of Internet cafes. The university street in Irbid, Jordan, was in the Guinness Book of World Records for having the highest number of Internet cafes (100) on one street, serving the public with competitive prices and high-quality services. Seeking health information (by using either the Internet or other sources) is a strategy that many people use as a means of coping and reducing stress. 3 Having a disease, especially if it is chronic, imposes a heavy bur- den on patients, families, and the whole society. It is not only the challenges that the patient and family face, especially if it is a new experience, that present addi- tional challenges, but also the feeling of losing control and feelings of powerlessness. Moreover, patients’ 184 CIN: Computers, Informatics, Nursing & May/June 2009 CIN: Computers, Informatics, Nursing & Vol. 27, No. 3, 184–191 & Copyright B 2009 Wolters Kluwer Health | Lippincott Williams & Wilkins The objective of this pilot study was to evaluate Internet use among Jordanian patients and care- givers. The study included a convenience sam- ple of patients with different health problems and diseases and caregivers. A survey modified from a study by Dickerson et al was used. A total of 78 patients and caregivers participated (37 patients and 41 caregivers), and 56.4% of the respon- dents were Internet users. Among Internet users, the Internet accounted for only 4.6% of their sources of health information, while physicians accounted for 11.3% and 17.6% among users and nonusers, respectively. Twenty-five of the participants (32.0%) reported high dependence on the media to obtain health information. Among all participants, a surprising percentage (37.2%) did not seek health information from any sources. The results of the survey provide insight into the need to study information-seeking behavior in general before studying specific technology to seek health information. KEY WORDS Caregivers & Health-information seeking & Internet use & Jordanian patients I N T E R N A T I O N A L Author Affiliations: Faculty of Nursing (Dr Akhu-Zaheya), Jordan University of Science and Technology; and School of Nursing (Ms Dickerson), University at Buffalo, State University of New York. This article is a pilot study conducted to assess Internet use for health information among Jordanian patients and caregivers, because Jordan recently has experienced a widespread use of the Internet, as a preliminary study for future research. The study was presented at the 14th International Conference on Cancer Nursing (September 27–October 1, 2006), Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Corresponding author: Laila M. Akhu-Zaheya, PhD, RN, Habis Al-Sarayra St, Tariq, AboAlia, PO Box 11946, Amman, Jordan 460304 (lma22@buffalo.edu). 9 Copyright @ 200 Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. Unauthorized reproduction of this article is prohibited.